File:Our Philadelphia (1914) (14595492958).jpg

Identifier: ourphiladelphia00penn (find matches)
Title: Our Philadelphia
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, 1855-1936 Pennell, Joseph, 1857-1926
Subjects: Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, 1855-1936 Lithography, American
Publisher: Philadelphia and London : J. B. Lippincott Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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ere not the inspiration of ThomasJeffersons severe criticism of his fellow Americans who,he said, were unable to terminate the most sociable mealswithout transforming themselves into brutes. It wasimpossible for young ladies and grave elders to keepdescriptions of public banquets and family feasts andfriendly tea-drinkings out of their letters and diaries:one reason of the fascination their letters and diaries havefor Philadelphians who read them to-day. And alto-gether, by the Revolution, to judge from John Adamsaccount of his sinful feasts in Philadelphia, andGeneral Greenes descri23tion of the luxury of Boston as an infant babe to the luxury of Philadelphia, and therest of Americas opinion of Philadelphia as a place of crucifying expenses, and many more signs of thetimes, the dinners of Philadelphia had become so in-separable from any meeting, function, or business, thatI am tempted to question whether, had they not been eaten,the Declaration of Independence could have been signed.
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MORRIS HOUSE, GERMANTOWN PHILADELPHIA AT TABLE 421 But it was signed and who can say, in face of the fact, thatPhiladelphia was any the worse for its feasting? Andwhat if it proved a dead weight to John Adams, did Bos-ton, did anj other town do more in the cause of patriotismand independence? One inevitable feature of the sinful feasts was theJNIadeira John Adams drank at a great rate, but sufferedno inconvenience from. I could not dispense with it inthese old records, such a sober place does it hold in myown memories of Philadelphia. The decanter of Madeiraon my Grandfathers dinner table marked the state occa-sion, and I would not have recognized Philadelphia on myreturn had the same decanter not been produced in wel-come. It was an assurance that Philadelphia was stillPhiladelphia, though sky-scrapers might break the oncepleasant monotony of low, red brick houses and motorhorns resound through the once peaceful streets. From the beginning Madeira was one of the things nogood Philade

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